S T A R G A T E : R E - I M A G I N E D
by ThomasEdwinCastello
Summary: WARNING: A.U. fic based on research and whistleblower testimony. Do not read if you scoff at conspiracy theories. You've been warned.
1. Introduction & Chapter 1

STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED

Introduction.

With advances in modern Ancient Astronaut theory, combined with revelations from whistleblowers and anecdotal evidence regarding hidden shadow-government operations and alien agendas here on Earth, I have undertaken to re-write the Stargate universe in order to bring it more in line with reality. Stargate: SG-1 was intended to fit into a mode of plausible deniability. Just enough truth was added to make any revelations concerning the major destinations of the Black Budget seem like some conspiracy theorist's fantasy based on a TV show. I do not suppose that this piece of fan fiction will reach any great audience, but I wanted to attempt it anyway, out of intellectual creativity.

That being said, this work will not imitate reality completely. For example, despite its central importance in the Stargate universe, in all my research I have found no evidence of any wormhole device being operated by the US government - though there seems to be evidence of an ancient Stargate operated by the race known as the Anunnaki, which is either no longer extant on Earth or is long buried beneath the alluvium of Iraq (or, perhaps, submerged beneath the Persian Gulf after the last Ice Age ended). I do, however, intend for the stargate to be a central theme in this work. To do otherwise would turn this work from a piece of Stargate fanfiction into an original work with characters ripped off from Stargate: SG-1.

A note on translation and alien communication.

I intend for several characters in this fanfic to speak derivatives of ancient Earth languages. However, I am not a trained linguist, and even sentences in my derivative languages may make no sense according to the English translation they are intended to represent. At the bottom of each chapter I will post the English version of what was being said.

The Asgard herein communicate telepathically, though they do understand Earth languages and are cunning linguists (I always liked that joke). {Telepathic communication is represented like this.} The Greys do not use word-based telepathy but instead transmit thoughts based on images and concepts, but since this cannot be represented on paper, the brackets will have to suffice.

Now that that's out of the way, enjoy the fic.

SOUTHERN IRAQI MARSHES

15,000 B.C.

Kishar, a young man, looked up at the many stars in the night sky as he and his tribe sat around their campfire telling stories, their tents clustered around them in a circle, illuminated in the flickering firelight. He wondered if the sky was really a dome, or if the stars were just far away fires that the people in the sky kindled at night to keep them warm - just as his people did.

Then, a blue light, low on the eastern horizon, one which he had not noticed before, began to move across the firmament. He had seen streaking stars before, but this was far too slow to be like them. It even zig-zagged erratically. Then he noticed it was getting bigger... or was it getting closer?

He pointed, wordlessly. The others looked in the direction he indicated.

Then, it was overhead. The others became afraid, even though the light was soundless. They ran, seeking shelter in the reeds or underneath their tents. But Kishar was unafraid. He simple stood there, gazing up.

The last thing Kishar remembered was three low hums, like a big rock being dragged, and a flash of light.

IRAQI DESERT NEAR UR

1938

Leonard Woolley stepped into the chamber which had been discovered by his workmen - terribly impoverished and uneducated men, prone to try and smuggle gold artifacts from the site. But they had discovered no gold this time. His men has summoned him, the head excavator at the site, to look at some kind of large chamber which had been constructed beneath the tomb, if he understood Hassan's unusual dialect of Arabic at all.

Here was the entry chamber, with dirt and stone lying all around, mixed with a few broken pottery shards. Hassan showed him a cover stone which the workmen had had to move in order to access the inner chamber.

"Hmm... primitive cuneiform scratched into the surface... what's this?"

He stooped to better look at some odd symbols which he had never seen before.

"Curious."

Deciding that he would take a closer look when the stone had been moved into better lighting, he entered the passageway beyond.

It was narrow, and angled downward. He could not see the end of it in the dark. Hassan informed him that the passage went on for several minutes at a moderate pace, breathing in the cool, stale, and rather odd-smelling air. "This is not Sumerian architecture", thought Woolley. This was something else entirely.

At length, the professor and his assistant reached a large chamber, or Woolley thought it was quite large by the amount of time between echoes - there was no light except from their electric lamps, and it was not enough to illuminate solid floor beyond a few meters in front of them. He could see no writing, artifacts, or even pillars.

Hassan spoke in English. "This is as far as the men got, professor, before they left for fear of underground demons."

The two excavators continued into the darkness. Then their lamp light glinted off something in the distance that looked metallic. They approached and raised their lights to reveal the most astounding archaeological find Woolley had ever seen.

"My God."

"What is it sir?"

"I have no idea."

It was shaped like a ring, and there were strange symbols on it, similar to the ones he had seen on the blocking cover stone. It had to be at least five meters tall, with chevron shaped jewels or glass inserted at regular intervals. Beneath it was a low stone platform with-

"Professor, look!" Hassan pointed to something glinting by one of the platform's corners.

Woolley kneeled down to inspect the find. It was a metal artifact of some sort, shaped like a serpent's head with jeweled eyes and incised patterns. A heavy looking ornate metal staff lay beside it. But that was not what had made Hassan gasp - wearing the metal like a helmet and clutching the staff was a human skeleton.

1994

Inside a lecture room at a prominent American university, Doctor Daniel Jackson, professor of archaeology, was expounding upon the pyramids of Egypt.

"I mean, there are symbols painted everywhere: names, pictures, titles of owners, offerings. Every other major architectural structure at the time was covered with detailed hieroglyphics! When is the academic community going to accept the fact that the pharaohs of the fourth dynasty did not build the Great Pyramids, they only renovated them?"

There was a skeptical muttering from the crowd, as Captain Doctor Samantha Carter slipped quietly into the back of the room, dressed in formal air force blues.

Jackson continued. "Look, look, inside the Great Pyramid, the most incredible structure ever erected, there are no writings whatsoever."

"Doctor Jackson," interjected a snooty, balding professor, "you left out the fact that Colonel Vyse discovered Khoramun's inscriptions of Khufu's name within the pyramid."

Dr. Jackson turned around to write the cartouche in question on his blackboard.

"The discovery was a fraud."

"Well I hope you can prove it."

"I'm so glad you asked." Daniel gave him a sarcastic smile. "Look" he said as he drew the cartouche, "this writing is clearly in a semi-hieratic style, a style which was not practiced until the Middle Kingdom. Additionally, from drawings Vyse made in 1837, the so called 'sieve' symbol has clearly been incorrectly reconstructed - there are no three lines inside the circle, which would of course be needed to correctly spell the "Kh" in Khufu's name. Someone has clearly forged the three lines since 1837, and then there's the fact that the same red ochre paint used to paint the inscription was used by modern Egyptians during Vyse' time as well. In relieving chambers there have been founds several inscriptions with names like Shoufou, Raufu, Khnem-Khufu and the like. I mean, aren't those names supposed to describe the owner of the Great Pyramid? If so, which one owned it? And Vyse discovered the only chambers inside the Pyramid with any inscriptions at all. Is that a coincidence? Vyse was certainly under a lot of pressure to discover something of significance by his investors."

The professor just sat silently, his mouth opening and closing slightly.

"And let's not forget the fact that the Egyptians never painted the Great Pyramid being used as a tomb by Khufu or anyone else, and no physical evidence exists to prove the structure was ever interred with physical remains, treasure, or even pottery which tomb robbers wouldn't bother to steal. It's as if someone came along and swept the pyramid clean!"

Professor McSnooty sat there stunned, until he managed to form a sentence: "Well... who do you think built the pyramids then?"

It was Daniels turn to pause. "...I don't have any idea who built them-"

McSnooty laughed. "Men from Atlantis? Or Martians perhaps!"

Daniel's audience laughed with the professor, and began filing out of the room.

"The point is not who built them but when they were built. I mean we all know new geological evidence indicates that the Sphinx dates back to a much earlier archaeological period, and knowing this... I think we have to re-evaluate everything we've come to accept about..."

Now the only one left in the audience was some old guy, so Daniel addressed him.

"I've been able to show a fully developed writing system appeared in the first two dynasties... you know, which... almost as if it was based on an even earlier type."

"Hey man, I believe you." Old guy patted him on the shoulder.

"Is there a lunch or something... that everybody..."

Captain Carter, grimacing, turned and walked out of the building.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

SEVERAL HOURS LATER

It was raining. After wandering around for what seemed like ages trying to find the lunch that Daniel had thought everyone went to, he had finally given up and decided to take a taxi home. Exiting the building onto the damp street, he noticed in his periphery an Air Force officer with an umbrella and heavy overcoat exit a black vehicle parked right in front of the building.

"Dr. Jackson!" the man yelled, "someone wants to speak with you."

Daniel paused, unsure.

"The Air Force? What's this? What is this?"

"Would you step up to the car please?" The officer's tone became slightly more authoritative, and Daniel attempted to peer through the automobile's windows.

"Sir?" the officer said again.

Relenting, Daniel did as he was asked.

"We going somewhere?"

"You'll be fine. We'll take care of these."

Another Air Force officer opened the door for Daniel as the archaeologist dropped his suitcase and baggage outside.

Inside the car there sat yet another officer, a woman this time, with blonde short hair, and a nametag reading "CARTER". She was reviewing some photos and documentation as Daniel sat down beside her. As he did so, she held out an old black and white photograph of a man, woman, and child surrounded by grass and trees in a rural setting.

"Jackson", she asked, "are those your parents?"

Wondering how the military got their hands on this photo, Daniel replied, eventually, saying that they were his foster parents.

"What... what is this all about?" Daniel asked at length.

"A job." Carter smiled at him, attempting to put on a reassuring face.

"What kind of a job?" Daniel was skeptical and there was an air of disbelief that the Air Force of all organizations would need his services. And if they really needed an archaeologist, why not go to someone a bit more respected in their field?

"Translation. Ancient Sumerian cuneiform."

Daniel didn't say anything.

"Interested?"

"...Yeah, I'm gonna go now..."

"Go where? You've just been evicted from your apartment. Your grants have run out. Everything you own are in those two bags" explained Carter, indicating the Daniel's things being heavily rained on outside. "And no, before you ask, the Air Force had nothing to do with your grant money running out."

Carter continued. "You want to prove that your theories are right?" - and here Carter handed him a couple of folded papers - "this is your chance."

Daniel looked at the ledger in his hand. "What's this?"

"Travel plans."

One of the officers opened the door again. "Sir?"

...How did they know the conversation was done?

As Daniel climbed out of the back seat, Carter gave him a small but genuine smile.

MINNESOTA

RETIRED COLONEL JACK O'NEILL'S RESIDENCE

In a suburb of Minneapolis, a sky blue car pulled up to the troubled home of Jack and Sarah O'Neill, and Major Paul Davis, with his aide beside him, knocked on the white front door.

Mrs. O'Neill appeared a few moments later. "Come on in", she told them in a quiet voice.

The officers stepped inside, removing their caps as military regulations dictated. As his aide closed the door, Major Davis addressed the young-middle-aged woman, who was now washing dishes and lighting a fag. "Mrs. O'Neill, is your husband home?"

"Yes."

"Can we talk to him?"

"You can try."

After she told the men where they could find her husband - their late son's room, up the stairs, first door on the right - Davis gently knocked and pushed open the door slightly. Jack, who had been sitting on the bed holding his pistol in contemplation, quickly slid the weapon under the pillows.

"Excuse me, Colonel O'Neill? We're from General Hammond's office, he replaced General West."

"..."

"Sir?"

"..."

"... We're here to inform you that you've been... reactivated."

After they had got out the front door and back to their vehicle, Davis' aide remarked "the guy's a mess. How'd he get like that?"

"His kid died", Davis replied, "accidentally drowned in Lake Superior. What, you didn't think that gun he was hiding was the cause did you? C'mon, no Air Force parent is irresponsible enough to leave their gun case unlocked where his child could get at it."

"...Jesus."

36 HOURS LATER

MILITARY INSTALLATION

ARCHULETA MESA, NEW MEXICO

An Air Force escort led Daniel Jackson up to a guarded elevator situated beneath a deep tunnel drilled right into Archuleta Mesa. It looked to Daniel as if the stone had melted right around whatever drill they had used to excavate this tunnel. The two stepped inside after the escort swiped his keycard, and the elevator began descending. Daniel sneezed loudly as the escort observed him.

"Cold?" the officer queried.

"Allergies. Happens when I travel" Daniel replied through a stuffy nose.

They exited on level 10. A couple of academic looking people passing by happened to recognize Doctor Jackson, and they greeted him.

"Dr. Jackson? Dr. Gary Meyers, how are ya?" Dr. Meyers grinned at Daniel.

Walking to fast to properly reply, Daniel asked what this place was to no one in particular.

The bespectacled woman beside Dr. Meyers answered.

"Underground military installation, that's all they would tell us, Barbara Shore, hi."

"Hello", Daniel nodded.

The escort led them to a pair of door labeled "RESEARCH LABORATORY - ACCESS RESTRICTED", and opened them with his keycard. Everything in this base seemed to require a special access pass.

Inside, several researchers milled around a positively gigantic stone carving, rectangular, with several depictions of winged beings surrounding a few characters Dr. Jackson recognized as proto-cuneiform writing, as well as several symbols he had not seen before. Daniel and friends walked up to the carving, Daniel open-mouthed in awe.

Behind them a smiling Captain Carter appeared, and walked up beside Daniel, who started slightly and then held out his hand to shake her extended one. The archaeologist blurted:

"This is... heh... where'd you find this?"

"Basra province, Iraq, 1938" Carter said matter-of-factly.

"I've... I've never seen anything like this."

Carter giggled a little. "Of course you haven't. No one has."

Dr. Meyers spoke up. "Now there's two lines of cuneiform... now the inner tract has the prototypical figures, but the outer tract is like the red carved and painted symbols in the center. It's got writing unlike we've ever seen before."

Daniel looked at them. "These aren't cuneiform... might be some form of early Indus script or proto-hieroglyphics..." He wandered over to a transcription of the legible cuneiform on a nearby blackboard. Since cuneiform cannot be depicted in this format, I will post the transliteration:

"ANUNNAKI AN AKITU 260000. DARISAM KUAN KADINGIR KALU HALAM."

And Dr. Meyers' translation in English words:

"Sky offspring heaven time 260000. Forever to heaven door of the gods buried."

Daniel looked at this blackboard for a moment, then declared "Well, the translation of the inner tract is... wrong. Must have used Kramer, I don't know why they keep re-printing his books..."

As Daniel began to erase some of the English translations and replace them with his own, Dr. Meyers interjected.

"Excuse me, what... what are you doing? We've used every known technique-"

But Daniel continued. "That's a curious word to use, huh? 'Kadingir'?"

"Y-yeah..."

Jackson spoke aloud as he wrote. "Sealed... and buried... for all time..."

Dr. Meyers was beside himself. "Uh, excuse me! What are you doing?" Daniel ignored him and crossed out more of his translations.

"Who the hell translated this?"

A long pause, then, "I... I did" spoke Meyers.

Daniel concluded. "Well, this should read: 'Two-hundred sixty thousand years into the sky are those who came from heaven to earth. Sealed and buried for all time' - it's not 'gate of the gods' - their 'Stargate'. And, stop for applause."

No one said anything, but Carter laughed slightly in delight.

Daniel again spoke. "So, why is the military interested in five thousand year old Sumerian tablets?"

A new voice interjected.

"My report says twelve thousand."

They looked toward the voice. It was a tall, rather good-looking Colonel, booklet in hand. The escort turned around at attention. "Good afternoon Colonel." The Colonel nodded, walking toward him, and handed him the booklet. Carter stepped forward.

"Sir! Captain Doctor Samantha Carter, from General Hammond's office."

"I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill, General Hammond's office" the man replied. "I'll be taking over from now on."

Carter momentarily let surprise and disappointment show on her face. Meanwhile, Jackson turned to Barbara Shore.

"This figure of twelve thousand is ludicrous, I mean Sumerian culture didn't even exist-"

"I know" Barbara interjected. "But the sonic and radiocarbon tests are conclusive."

"Well this is a cover stone. Was there a tomb underneath?"

"No, no, no. But we found something a lot more interesting-"

The Colonel, overhearing the conversation, interrupted.

"Excuse me. This information has become classified. From now on no information is to be passed on to non-military personnel without my express permission."

Carter, reluctantly, nodded, and O'Neill walked away.

"Captain, what's going on here?" asked Meyers.

"I'm not sure."

...

In an adjacent corridor, Sam caught up with O'Neill.

"Colonel... Sir!" she yelled after him, and he turned to face her. "I think you owe me an explanation. I was told I'd have complete autonomy over this project."

"Plans change, doctor."

"It is appropriate to address on officer by their rank, not their salutation, Sir" the captain replied curtly. "And frankly I was studying the gate technology for two years before this. I think I at least deserve to be on the team that goes through the gate. Why did General Hammond assign you to this project anyway, if I may ask?"

"I'm here in case you succeed."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

TWO WEEKS LATER

"...Completed search of cuneiform and other pre-Uruk period writing, no matches found whatsoever. I've exhausted all reference material in comparing the symbols in the center against all known writing samples from the period, pre and post. Still no similarities. I'm never going to get paid."

Daniel pressed the stop button on the tape recorder, and his captured voice was silent.

Tired, but not yet willing to sleep, he turned to the coffee maker upon the extremely messy desk next to the east wall of the room. It was empty.

Had he really drank all of that since midnight?

Throwing caution of caffeine-induced psychosis to the winds, he grabbed the pot and proceeded outside to refill it at the water fountain. The guard, looking up from the newspaper he was reading, vocalized his warning for the archaeologist to stop and show ID, which he did.

Glancing at the guard and wondering why on Earth he didn't know who he, Daniel, was by now, he noted a large diagram of the constellation Orion beside an astrological chart - utter nonsense, he thought - and an article entitled "Ancient Mystic Predicts Death of Trees Eminent". He waved the last one off as new age drivel, but there was something about that Orion diagram...

Like a predator stalking its prey, Daniel moved toward the guard, abandoning the coffee pot at the fountain, forgetting why he had come out of the lab in the first place. He practically tore the Orion page from the guards hands, adding, only as an afterthought and speaking through the doors of the lab which he had rapidly scampered through, "Can I borrow this...?"

"Crazy civilians..." muttered the guard under his breath.

...

Daniel placed the newspaper on his desk. He foraged for a pen in the drawers, and upon finding one, outlined the main body of Orion to make it stand out. He then proceeded to the ladder resting against the large coverstone. Climbing it, he compared his outline to one of the central symbols.

"Orion."

Indeed, the two looked almost precisely alike.

15:00 HOURS, THE SAME DAY

Daniel had been informed by Captain Carter that the big brass in charge of the project would be arriving to hear his briefing. He sure hoped he was right about the symbols, although having exhausted all other options, constellations were the only thing those characters could possibly represent.

Major Davis, who was the Pentagon attaché to Archuleta Mesa, or so Daniel had been told, led him to the secure briefing room as he finished off his infinity billionth cup of coffee. They entered the room, inside which was a large desk which almost filled the entire floor space and at which several high ranking officers (including Colonel O'Neill) and civilian personnel were sitting or milling about. Of course like every room in the base the lighting was quite dim, a fact which perplexed Daniel. Were they going out of their way to let people know they were underground or did their electrical budget just suck?

Daniel was approached by a large, completely bald man, and Captain Carter introduced him as General Hammond.

"Oh, right! Of course, General." Daniel freed his right hand from the massive pile of paper he was carrying to shake General Hammond's own hand, and the room settled in for his briefing.

As he sat down, the General queried "so you think you've solved in fourteen days what they couldn't solve in two years?"

Daniel paused. He looked at doctors Meyers and Shore. "Two years?"

"Any time, Dr. Jackson."

"Uh, I have some stuff... just pass them down."

Putting on a grin to hide his nervousness, Daniel began passing out the larger papers he held.

"Sorry, you'll have to share because I don't have enough." He laughed uncertainly.

"Anyway. Uh, alright, we're obviously looking at a picture of the coverstones, now, on the outer track, these figures that you would believe to be words to be translated were, in fact" - from his seat, Daniel clumsily placed a huge diagram of the night sky on the desk - "star constellations."

Carter listed with interest.

"Now these constellations were placed in a unique order forming a... map, or an address of sorts. Seven points to outline a course to a position... and, uh..." Here, he walked toward the whiteboard behind him on the wall. "To find a destination within any three dimensional space, you need six points... to determine the exact location."

As he spoke, Daniel drew a cube, with one point on all six sides of the structure, which converged in the exact middle of the cube.

Hammond spoke up. "You said you needed seven points."

Daniel clarified. "Well, no, six for the destination. But to chart a course you need a point of origin." He drew a connecting point outside the cube.

Meyers voiced his objection: "Except there's only six symbols on the inner track."

"Well the seventh isn't actually inside the track, it's just below it here."

Daniel, having pinned a diagram of the coverstone to the board, circled the chevron or pyramid-shaped device beneath the vertical line of constellations, and then drew it in larger detail on the board: "a little pyramid with two... funny, neat little guys and a funny little line coming out of the top, heh." He giggled for no reason whatsoever. "Anyway, uh..."

Everyone stared silently, then the General Hammond spoke incredulously. "I'm sorry, Dr. Jackson... you came up with all this not even knowing that what was hidden in the chamber beneath the coverstone was a device that, according to Captain Carter, generates an artificial stable wormhole? What could possibly have possessed you to believe the ancients were charting a course to distant point in space, rather than using the constellations as simply a new form of writing?"

Daniel began to uncannily resemble a deer looking into the headlights of an oncoming automobile. "Uh..."

Hammond brought his palm to his face. "Never mind... for the sake of the story I'll accept that you came up with this on your own."

Daniel now looked to Carter. "Um, artificial stable what now?"

Hammond looked at O'Neill, who shrugged.

"Show him" ordered the general.

Major Davis pressed a green button by the whiteboard, and it began to move upward as gears kicked into action. Beyond, Daniel saw there was a window down into a very large concrete chamber in which technicians swarmed beneath, and lights shone from above upon, a wondrous object, a seemingly metal circle, held by great supports which also contained electrical wiring, for it seemed the military was planning to electrically charge the device.

"What is that?"

Captain Carter spoke from next to him. "It's your Stargate."

...

Colonel O'Neill cleared his throat.

"Now that the esteemed Dr. Jackson has been let in on the Big Secret, we have a much more important matter to discuss: who gets to go through the Stargate?"

The general answered him, saying "I've already picked you to lead the mission Colonel, and you get to pick your team, but I want Daniel Jackson and Sam Carter to go through with you."

A major, Ferretti, interjected. "Who's this Carter we keep hearing so much about?"

Carter turned to him. "I am Captain Samantha Carter, sir. Obviously you haven't noticed the nametag on my uniform, so here I am."

Another major, Kowalski, who sat beside Feretti asked "but of course you go by Sam."

"You don't have to worry Major. I played with dolls when I was a kid."

"G.I. Joe?"

"No, Major Matt Mason."

"Oh. Who?"

Ferretti. "Major Matt Mason, astronaut doll. Did you have that cool little backpack that made him fly?"

O'Neill spoke up. "Two scientists? General, please..."

"Theoretical astrophysicist" retorted Carter.

"Which means...?"

"Which means she is smarter than you are, Colonel" said Hammond. Ferretti and Kowalski smirked. "Especially in matters related to the Stargate."

"Colonel, I was studying the gate technology for two years before Dr. Jackson here came up with a solution. I think I've earned a place on your team."

Hammond again spoke. "Captain Carter's assignment to this mission is not an option, Colonel."

Carter again. "I'm an Air Force officer just like you are, Colonel. And just because my reproductive organs are on the inside instead of the outside doesn't mean I can't handle whatever you can handle."

O'Neill sat down. "Oh, this has nothing to do with you being a woman. I like women. I just got a little problem with scientists."

Daniel, who was standing there in witness to the whole exchange, muttered under his breath. "What am I? Chopped liver?"

"Colonel, I logged over a hundred hours in enemy airspace during the Gulf War. Is that tough enough for you?" asked Carter. "Or are we going to have to arm wrestle?"

Beside a woman in a mini sweater dress, another civilian dressed in a sharp, black suit cleared his throat and emerged from the shadows.

"Well, if you two are done comparing penises, maybe we should discuss my involvement in this mission."

Every head in the room turned to face him.

"Agent Sterling Archer, NID, and, if I say so myself, the world's greatest secret agent."

Sam rounded on him. "Archer? What are you doing here?"

"You know this man, Captain?" asked O'Neill.

"Sam!" Archer greeted her. "I know you still have a thing for me, but I've moved on. Maybe, after we get back, we can work out some kind of bang-buddy deal-"

"Hah! You wish!" Lana Kane, the woman beside him, interjected.

Sam shook her head. "What. Are you doing here?"

"Agents Sterling Archer and Lana Kane are here as civilian oversight from the NID of this project" replied General Hammond.

"Yeah, and I have Q clearance" stated Archer.

"But this is an MJ-SCI-USAP program... oh never mind. General, does Archer really have to be on the mission?"

"Actually neither agents Kane nor Archer have clearance to go offworld. Agent Archer spoke out of turn."

"Aww, come on! Better us than some" - he indicated O'Neill - "Lieutenant..."

"Colonel" corrected O'Neill.

"...Lieutenant Colonel hopped up on LSD, compliments of the CIA and MKULTRA."

Hammond shook his head. "I'm not dignifying that with a response."

...

Half an hour later, Colonel O'Neill stood in a very secure section of the base, examining the skeleton found at the Ur dig site. It appeared that the bones and the ornate serpentine helmet had been corroded by something that was in the air, even though they were sealed in that chamber hundreds of meters below ground for thousands of years where presumably no air exchange took place.

General Hammond entered, and walked up beside O'Neill, who turned to the general.

"General. I thought I said I retired."

Hammond looked at him quizzically. "Oh. I thought you said you were tired."

"Well... I am a little tired, actually." He continued, indicating the humanoid bones. "You understand this complicates things."

"That's why I wanted you Jack. We've opened a doorway to a world we know nothing about."

...


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

SEVERAL HOURS LATER

GATE ROOM

Hammond, O'Neil, Carter and Daniel strode into the control room of the Stargate facility. Dozens of technicians were busy preparing the computer systems and gate diagnostics as well as entering commands into the supercomputers designed to process, receive data from, and send data to the alien computers inside the Stargate itself.

"Monitors up" ordered Hammond.

"I've got details on" came the reply, from a man dressed as a Technical Sergeant. His nametag said Harriman.

"Good", proclaimed Hammond. "Make it spin."

Harriman turned to the General.

"Sir, it doesn't spin."

"What? It has to spin! It's round! Spinning is so much cooler than not spinning. I'm the General, I want it to spin. Now."

"Yes, sir." Under his breath, Harriman muttered "jackass" and proceeded to input the coordinates Daniel had given.

The gate began spinning.

"Hey. It does spin after all."

O'Neill gave the Sergeant a hearty pat on the back. "Yeah, magnets probably."

The entire facility began shaking as the coordinates were dialed and each red chevron on the 'Gate lit up in turn as it hit the appropriate symbol - there were thirty nine in all, making for an extremely large number of possible combinations.

"This is as far as we have ever been able to get" said Carter to Daniel as the sixth chevron was encoded. With Daniel's identification of the last symbol, the pyramid shape - the point of origin - they would hopefully be able to establish a lock.

The room was shaking so violently now that unsecured devices like land lines were vibrating uncontrollably and pens flew in people's faces. Siler, another Master Sergeant, crumpled to the floor with a cry of "Ow, my eye!".

Then the vibrations stopped. But what happened next was far more astonishing.

The center of the Stargate lit up with a great flash, excess electricity enveloped the metal of the gate itself, and the very air was warped as the wormhole was established. (For a good approximation of what the wormhole looked like, see . , only imagine that the warped part between the inner and outer vistas is moving and rotating, and that a good deal of harmless blue plasma is being ejected from the wormhole into both the SGC and the other side as electrons and other subatomic particles tunnel through the energy barriers.)

Agent Archer was the first to speak, whiskey still in hand. "Holy shit dude."

That snapped everyone back to the task at hand: Hammond proceeded to order in the robotic probe, or MALP.

Covered by men with rifles, who pointed them at the wormhole, evidently as a precaution in case hostile forces entered from the other side, the robot proceeded up the ramp leading to the hole in space-time. As it entered the stargate, it too appeared to be warped, until Daniel could see it, faintly, on the other side - a dimly lit desert area. Another planet?

The soldiers cleared the inner silo as one of the female technicians looked up from the technical readouts now being transmitted by the probe.

"We're receiving data now, sir. The beam has locked itself onto a point somewhere in... in the Draco Dwarf galaxy."

Daniel and Carter turned to the star map, which displayed the Milky Way and the surrounding local cluster of galaxies. Earth was represented by a blue dot, and the robotic arm indicating the probe's location was now pointing toward a small spherical galaxy situated 260 thousand light years away.

As Daniel realized the implications of this, Carter spoke: "That's right, Jackson. It's two hundred sixty thousand light years away. I guess the carvers of the seal stone got it right."

The technician continued. "It has mass. It could be a moon or a large asteroid."

Harriman. "We're losing the signal."

And with Harriman's statement, the wormhole disappeared and space-time warped back to its normal configuration, leaving only trace amounts of blue plasma which quickly dissipated.

***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***

AN HOUR LATER

BRIEFING ROOM

General Hammond and Sergeant Walter Harriman were pouring over the vast amount of data the SGC had received from the probe before the Stargate deactivated. Colonel O'Neill, Captain Carter, and Daniel looked on with varying amounts of interest. The General turned to the others.

"This is the information the probe sent back to us." As Walter skimmed over some of the images of the stargate on the other end, Hammond motioned to him to stop and enhance the image quality with... you know, top-secret image enhancing software not yet available to the general public. As the symbols on the stargate came into clearer focus, Hammond continued: "You can clearly see the gate on the other side. Both gates must have functioned as a doorway between our two worlds."

The technical sergeant elaborated. "These readings tell us it's an atmospheric match. Pressure, temperature... and most importantly, oxygen."

Daniel noticed the now clear symbols on the alien stargate. "These markings are different" he stated, in reference to the fact that he had not seen a match for any of the alien gate's constellation symbols on the earth gate so far. "They don't match the symbols on our gate."

"That's why we may have to abort" confirmed General Hammond. "This project is for naught without a reconnaissance mission. Once on the other side you'd have to decipher the symbols on the other gate, and in essence, "dial home", in order to bring the team back. Based on this new information I don't see how we can do that."

They all paused, looking at the data. Finally, Daniel spoke.

"Well, I could do that."

The military personnel stared at him.

"Are you sure?" asked Hammond.

"Positive" nodded Daniel.

O'Neill looked at the alien symbols, then at Hammond as he turned away. "He's full of shit."

General Hammond considered this most cogent and logical argument for a moment. Then, shrugging, he turned to Daniel and said "you're on the team."

***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***

In the room with the cover stones, Daniel looked over his archaeological reference books, trying to decide which ones would be most useful in interpreting an alien culture which was familiar with Earth symbols.

From behind him, a tall figure approached. He was not wearing a military uniform or normal civilian clothing, but a long grey robe which reached down to his ankles and fit his body tightly but not too tightly. It appeared to be made of a shiny fabric about as thick as a business suit. His blonde hair, unusually, was worn long, about shoulder length, and he carried himself with the air of a dignitary or nobleman. Daniel turned to him and smiled. "Hey" he offered the man in greeting.

The man nodded to him, then reached inside a pocket and handed him a length of metal chain on which hung a cylindrical gold pendant. The writing on it was undecipherable.

"For luck" the man said.

Daniel looked him. "Where did you get this?"

"Not important." Few of words, this guy. "You can bring it back to me."

He turned away.

"Who are you?" Daniel called after him.

For a moment the man paused. "Ra Mu" he said, and walked out of the room.

Daniel shrugged, and pulled the chain over his neck.

***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***

The next day, the team that was to go through the gate assembled in the corridor outside the Gate room, checking their weapons and supplies. Sam Carter and Jack O'Neill were there, with O'Neill as the officer in command, as well as Kowalski and Ferretti and four others, not including Daniel, who arrived late.

As he saw that the team were all assembled, O'Neill addressed his men.

"If anyone has anything to say, now's the time to say it. Smoke if ya got 'em."

No one said anything, but Daniel sneezed and blew his nose.

They entered the gate room and moved up the ramp. It was a tense moment, no one knowing what kind of effects a ride across a tremendous distance using a space-time shortcut would have on the human body. One of the men used a remote control to move the robot carrying most of their food and heavy equipment into the wormhole before them. Then one by one, the soldiers entered the Stargate.

Daniel was last, pausing just before hitting the event horizon. Glowing azure streams of plasma touched his face and hands, causing a tingling sensation. He was apprehensive, even a little frightened, but oddly certain that his destiny lay on the other side. So, closing his eyes, he stepped into the unknown.

What followed felt like a sickening jolt forward as his feet were seemingly lifted off the ground. It felt like a giant had picked him up in its hand and thrown him across light years of space. Even as his eyes were closed, he could see planets, stars, and galaxies flash before him and disappear. Abruptly, he returned to normal space. The stargate closed behind him. He and the team were alone now.

***STARGATE: RE-IMAGINED***

{a team of military humans has discovered and re-activated the stargate}

{did they go through?}

{yes to the draco dwarf galaxy}

{then it is no matter death or worse awaits them there they will not succeed in upsetting the treaty}

To be continued...


End file.
